As the curtain begins to close on the year 2016, I pray it quietly exits by itself, taking no more prisoners, causalities, causes no more heartbreak and disasters. The year has gone quickly but it was packed solidly with unforgettable events and with such pain. I always feel anxious as we come to the end of a year, practically up to the last day of the year, because sometimes it feels as if the year is scavenging and desperate to collect as much as it can before it bales out (and it usually does!).

Taking stock is tough and my first impulse is to cast aspersions on this year and only see all that was bad, wrong about the year (and it was plenty!), but the optimist and hopeful in me believes that for all that was ugly and sad about 2016, there was beauty and good. I am choosing to give honour to the many wonderful things that happened in my life, the lives of friends and family. I am grateful for the love of family and friends. I am grateful for the learning and growth I have been afforded through all the challenges, disappointments and even the heartaches. I am grateful for whatever gifts that have been bestowed upon me in my service to humanity. I am a better person for it all.

I would like to share with you amazing readers some words of wisdom, prayers and thoughts of hope, gratitude as we walk hand in hand, heart in heart through the end of this difficult but blessed year.

 

Dear God

Lift me up with Your Grace and blessings today

Anoint me with strength, wisdom and understanding

Bless me with patience, magnanimity, and courage

 

A Thanksgiving Prayer, by Rabbi Naomi Levy

For the laughter of the children

For my own breath,

For the abundance of food on my table

For the ones that prepared the food

For the roof over our head

The clothes on our backs

For our health,

And our wealth of blessings.

For the opportunity to celebrate with family and friends,

For the freedom to pray these words

Without fear

In any language,

In any faith,

In a country

Whose landscape is as vast and beautiful as her inhabitants

Thank you God, for giving us all these. AMEN

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Dear God: We thank you for food as we remember the hungry

We thank you for health as we remember the infirm

We thank you for friends as we remember the friendless

We thank you for freedom as we remember the enslaved

May these remembrances stir us to service

That your gifts to us may be used for others. AMEN

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DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT

ANYTHING, BUT IN EVERY SITUATION,

BY PRAYER AND PETITION,

WITH THANKSGIVING,

PRESENT YOUR REQUESTS TO GOD,

AND THE PEACE OF GOD, WHICH

TRANSCENDS ALL UNDERSTANDING, WILL

GUARD YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR

MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS.  AMEN – Philippians 4-6-7

 

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‘MY HEART IS AT EASE KNOWING

THAT WHAT IS MEANT FOR ME WILL

NEVER MISS ME, AND THAT WHAT

MISSES ME WAS NEVER MEANT FOR ME’ –Mohammed ibn idris al-Shafi’i

 

SERENITY PRAYER

God grant us the serenity to

Accept the things we cannot change,

Courage to change the things we can,

And the wisdom to know the difference

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• What the New Year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the New Year
• When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile
• The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way

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And in the end,

It’s not the years in your

Life that count.

It’s the life in your years – Abraham Lincoln

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Nothing is really over

Until the moment

You stop trying. – Brian Dyson

 

LAST YEAR’S WORDS BELONG TO LAST

YEAR’S LANGUAGE AND NEXT YEAR’S WORDS

AWAIT ANOTHER VOICE – T S ELIOT

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IT ALL BEGINS AND ENDS IN YOUR MIND.

WHAT YOU GIVE POWER TO. HAS POWER OVER YOU.

IF YOU ALLOW IT!

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At this age, everything is changing. Day by day we don’t notice, but just look back over the past year and you will realise everything has. People you thought were going to be there forever aren’t, and people you never imagined you’d be speaking to are now some of your closest friends. Life makes little sense, and the more we grow the less sense it will make. So make the most of now, before it all changes once again, because in the near future, all of this is only going to be memories

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MAKE A LIST OF THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY

MAKE A LIST OF THINGS YOU DO EVERDAY

COMPARE THE LIST

ADJUST ACCORDINGLY

 

Appreciate this moment, stop and look around you,

Be thankful for all you have and where you are’

Because this time next year, nothing will be the same!

 

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO SAY:

THIS IS NOT HOW THE STORY IS GOING TO END

AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT

 

 

IT’S FUNNY HOW DAY BY DAY,

NOTHING CHANGES, BUT

LOOKING BACK EVERYTHING CHANGED – C S LEWIS

 

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Happiness starts with you – not with your relationships,

Not with your job, not with your money

But with you!

 

AT THE END OF LIFE, WHAT REALLY MATTERS

IS NOT WHAT WE BOUGHT BUT WHAT WE BUILT;

NOT WHAT WE GOT BUT WHAT WE SHARED;

NOT OUR COMPETENCE BUT OUR CHARACTER;

AND NOT OUR SUCESS, BUT OUR SIGNIFICANCE

LIVE A LIFE THAT MATTERS. LIVE A LIFE OF LOVE

 

We must accept the end of something

In order to begin to build

Something new

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THE GREATES GIFT YOU CAN GIVE SOMEONE IS YOUR

TIME

BECAUSE WHEN YOU GIVE YOUR TIME,

YOU ARE GIVING A PORTION OF YOUR LFE

THAT YOU WILL NEVER GET BACK

 

Dear Lord,

I would like to thank you for the gift of life, of love and of grace.

You have protected me throughout the year. Even though things were not always easy,

You were by my side each step of the way.

I commit my entire life and those of my loved-ones into your mighty hands.

I pray that through your grace I may continue to grow and to live according to Your will so that Your glory may shine through me and may inspire others.

THANK YOU LORD

Amen

 

 

Gloria Ogunbadejo writes a weekly column for Punch Newspaper. She is a Psychotherapist, a life coach, a holistic counsellor and an ordained Minister

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